Quantitative and Qualitative Assessment of Soil Erosion Risk in Małopolska (Poland), Supported by an Object-Based Analysis of High-Resolution Satellite Images

Abstract

Abstract-In 2011 the Marshal Office of Małopolska Voivodeship decided to evaluate the vulnerability of soils to water erosion for the entire region. The quantitative and qualitative assessment of the erosion risk for the soils of the Małopolska region was done based on the USLE approach. The special workflow of geoinformation technologies was used to fulfil this goal. A high-resolution soil map, together with rainfall data, a detailed digital elevation model and statistical information about areas sown with particular crops created the input information for erosion modelling in GIS environment. The satellite remote sensing technology and the object-based image analysis (OBIA) approach gave valuable support to this study. RapidEye satellite images were used to obtain the essential up-to-date data about land use and vegetation cover for the entire region (15,000 km 2 ). The application of OBIA also led to defining the direction of field cultivation and the mapping of contour tillage areas. As a result, the spatially differentiated values of erosion control practice factor were used. Both, the potential and the actual soil erosion risk were assessed quantificatively and qualitatively. The results of the erosion assessment in the Małopolska Voivodeship reveal the fact that a majority of its agricultural lands is characterized by moderate or low erosion risk levels. However, high-resolution erosion risk maps show its substantial spatial diversity. According to our study, average or higher actual erosion intensity levels occur for 10.6 % of agricultural land, i.e. 3.6 % of the entire voivodeship area. In 20 % of the municipalities there is a very urgent demand for erosion control. In the next 23 % an urgent erosion control is needed. Our study showed that even a slight improvement of P-factor estimation may have an influence on modeling results. In our case, despite a marginal change of erosion assessment figures on a regional scale, the influence on the final prioritization of areas (municipalities) according to erosion control needs is visible. The study shows that, high-resolution satellite imagery and OBIA may be efficiently used for P-factor mapping and thus contribute to a refined soil erosion risk assessment.

Monitoring the Secondary Forest Succession and Land Cover/Use Changes of the Błędów Desert (Poland) Using Geospatial Analyses

“…The use of high-resolution true color and false color (VNIR) RGB composite aerial photos (also stereoscopic solutions) and multispectral satellite images, has become much easier during the last few decades. A multitude of environmental research has confirmed the possibility of using this geodata supported by GIS analyses for remote and automated environment monitoring in the area of nature protection, forestry, meteorology, climatology and hydrology (Coops, White 2003, Corona et al 2008, Drzewiecki et al 2014, Latifi, Galos 2010, Wężyk et al 2013. The role played by image 6 MARTA SzOSTAK, PIOTR WężyK, PAWEł HAWRyłO, MARTA PUCHAłA classification based on multi-source, multi-resolution and multi-temporal remote sensed data is ever increasing in the environmental studies field.…”

The usefulness of soil-agricultural maps to identify classes of soil truncation

“…The area undergoing significant erosional transformations covers about 7.0% of the country's area (Wawer and Nowocieñ 2007). Recent assessment of actual erosion risk done based on the USLE approach (Drzewiecki et al 2014) showed that more than 25% of Ma³opolska Voivodeship area is threatened by moderate, average, strong or very strong erosion.…”

“…Wawer and Nowocieñ 2007, Drzewiecki and Mularz 2005, Drzewiecki et al 2014 or field works (e.g. Marcinek andKomisarek 2004, OEwitoniak 2014).…”

“…rural planning and agricultural production, environmental protection, mapping of agricultural soil The usefulness of soil-agricultural maps to identify classes of soil truncation 3 The usefulness of soil-agricultural maps to identify classes of soil truncation quality in general (Dobers et al 2010) or dividing agricultural lands into particular fields (Strzemski 1985). To assess the erosional processes they have been used in the aforementioned models of actual and potential water erosion of Poland (Wawer and Nowocieñ 2007) or Ma³opolska voivodship (Drzewiecki et al 2014).…”

Land Cover and Landscape Diversity Analysis in the West Polesie Biosphere Reserve

“…Contrary to the pixel based classification techniques, object based image analysis (OBIA) can replace the traditional methods of visual interpretation (Lewiñski, 2007) or even the supervised classification method commonly used today (Mas et al, 2010). Object oriented approach to classification is particularly well suited for high-resolution images (Drzewiecki et al, 2013;Tansey et al, 2009;Szostak et al, 2013). OBIA technique extends the standard classification methods that are based only on single pixel values.…”